Applying for a job in Europe can be tricky when you take into account all the differences in application documents across countries. Do you include a photo in your CV or personal details, such as marital status, gender and date of birth? Which format do you use? Chronological or skills-based?
To standardise application documents in Europe and thus make it easier to apply for jobs, the Europass CV system was introduced. Providing an easy way for jobseekers to create a CV that is widely recognised in Europe. Europass CV also allows employers to easily compare qualifications and work experience.
The European Skills Passport
The Europass CV is one of five documents that makes up the European Skills Passport:
- Europass CV: a standardised CV template, made up of seven sections
- Europass Language Passport: a self-assessment tool for evaluating and presenting your language skills in a way most employers understand
- Europass Mobility: a document that captures information about skills you have gained. While travelling, studying or working in a foreign country.
- Europass Certificate Supplement: a document that helps employers to understand your vocational qualifications
- Europass Diploma Supplement: describes the skills and knowledge gained from higher education
Creating a Europass CV
Consisting of standard CV sections such as personal details, work experience, education and skills. the Europass CV provides a structured template. Meaning you don’t need to look up CV conventions for different countries. Once created on the Europass website. You can create as many CVs as required and in as many as 29 languages, by selecting the information to include and the preferred design.
Pros for creating a Europass CV
The Europass CV exists to remove unnecessary boundaries for jobseekers applying across Europe. Other advantages include:
Free
The biggest advantage of the Europass CV is that it’s free. Meaning you don’t need to pay for CV templates or CV writing services. All you need to do is create an account and input your details.
Widely recognised in Europe
As mentioned, the Europass CV and its supplements are widely recognised all over Europe. Including EU member countries as well as members of the European Free Trade Association including Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland). This allows recruiters to quickly understand your qualifications and work experience, without needing to contact relevant authorities.
Possible to add supporting documents
You can outline all your work experience, education, skills and qualifications in great detail. And add supporting documents to further explain the content and knowledge gained in a qualification, certificate etc.
Saves time
With the Europass CV, you enter your information into a template, which is then formatted and arranged for you. Which means if you’re short on time, you won’t need to spend a lot of time on formatting the layout or tweaking the design.
Cons for creating a Europass CV
While the idea of a single, standardised CV across Europe has been praised. There are some disadvantages to the Europass CV:
Standardised / unattractive template
With many jobs attracting hundreds or even thousands of job postings, recruiters are only likely to pay attention to CVs that stand out from the rest.
With the Europass CV, there’s little room for individuality. Which is a disadvantage, if you’re a graphic designer, for example, and want to demonstrate your creativity. Even for standard applications, your CV needs to be tailored to the job posting. It means you may not need all the sections included in the Europass CV.
From a visual aspect, the Europass CV is notoriously unattractive with an outdated design, awkward text formatting and odd typography choices. As your CV is your branding document and the first impression prospective employers will have of you. It’s also important to put your own stamp on it.
Wasted space
Another criticism of the Europass CV is that it doesn’t make effective use of white space as the Europass logo. As well as the heading ‘Curriculum Vitae’, are displayed in bold at the top of the CV.
Additionally, the Europass CV aligns all information along the left margin. Leaving the right side of each page blank, resulting in a single-column layout and potentially up to 10 pages, depending on the sections completed.
This is bad news for most jobs where recruiters prefer CVs to be a maximum of 2 A4 pages, presenting only the most relevant and recent experience for the posting.
Difficult interface
The Europass online CV creation is notoriously difficult to use, with the average time to fill in all the categories (not all of which necessary) taking 30 minutes.
You may also end up downloading a blank document with your name if you miss the instruction asking you to select the parts of your profile to include on your CV.
Finally, the tool doesn’t make it obvious how to download the finished CV due to a lack of clear ‘Next’ or ‘Download CV’ buttons, with only the ‘Me’ option available.
The Europass tool itself doesn’t provide any pointers for writing an effective CV, which means you may come unstuck if this is your first time doing so.
Applying for jobs in Europe
When applying for jobs in Europe, it’s important to understand the CV conventions of different countries. For instance, in Germany, it’s customary to include a photo in your CV along with other personal details such as your marital status and gender. In the UK, providing personal information at this stage is discouraged to avoid discrimination.
You may also need to include other documentation such as proof of qualifications, letters of recommendation or references and proof of your right to work in that country, whereas this information may not be requested until at a later stage in countries like the UK.
